Congratulations to Thyrza Veitch who has won a leadership position at Blackwood High School as Coordinator Year 7-9 Learning Improvement and Pastoral Care. Thyrza has capably taught Upper Primary classes at Coromandel Valley Primary school and been involved in, and initiated, successful programs that run at our school including; Way to Go, Robotics, and the Student Representative Council. Thyrza has developed excellent leadership attributes which will be invaluable in her new role at Blackwood. We wish her all the best!

This information was emailed to families last week.

We would like to provide you with an update of information around key events that will be happening within the school community for term 4.

District Athletics Day - this will be a staff and student-only event. Schools will set up marquees around the stadium to keep distance between schools and staff. Some parents may be invited to attend to perform volunteer roles on the day.

Dance Night - will not take place this year as the Capri Theatre has a COVID safe plan which limits them to 340 people within the facility. Alternatively, we will be taking our students to the Capri Theatre on November 4th to do a practice run, followed by an afternoon performance that will be professionally filmed and made available for families. Students will be transported by bus to and from Capri theatre. 

Bookweek Parade/Grandparents Day - we will still have a book week parade for our staff and students however we are unable to invite families and Grandparents (those most vulnerable) to join us. 

Colour Run - Will go ahead with the potential to invite some parent volunteers to help with the running of this event. Thanks to Janita Bentley and Bec Wilson for organising this event.

Camps - We have booked local camps, who have their own COVID-19 plan, for our Yr 3-7 students. Our teachers feel strongly that students should have the opportunity to attend camps. Some parent volunteers may be invited to attend in line with supervision ratios.

Celebration Night - will not take place this year. Social distancing and COVID precautionary measures would be near impossible to uphold at such a large event. Alternatively, we will be having a Friday afternoon(Dec 11th) Assembly where we can farewell all students and teachers who are leaving our school community and celebrate their achievements. Parents of students who are leaving will be invited to attend this assembly.

Swimming Day - has been canceled for this year however we are currently considering different activities that can occur onsite for the last Wednesday (9th Dec).

Yr 7 Graduation - we are currently in the process of organising graduation for our Yr 7 students which will include lunch at the school and an evening graduation ceremony in the gymnasium. Families will receive an invitation to this event and social distancing measures will be in place.

The Department for Education has maintained its position for schools around COVID-19 practices

• staying at home when unwell (even mild respiratory symptoms)
• physical distancing (1.5m rule)
• hand hygiene
• cough/sneeze etiquette.

We realise that the changes to key events are disappointing however we will continue to involve families as much as possible via live streaming of events. Staff really appreciate your ongoing understanding and support as a community. We would ask that families please contact the school by phoning or email if you have any other queries around term 4 events.

Liz Pelling

A reminder that the end of term dismissal will be at 2:10 pm after our Sports Day next Friday 25th September. Students will be dismissed from classrooms. We would ask that parents refrain from entering the grounds until 1:50 pm.

On behalf of the staff, we hope you have a lovely holiday break.

A reminder to put in your sausage order for sports day before 9 am on Monday 21st September. Prepaid sausage orders will be available for students on the day. There will be no extra sausages available for purchase on the day. Vegan and Gluten-free options will be available.

Snacks will be available from the canteen at recess time. Parents can use QKR to order sausages or the hard copy form. (sent in sports day email) If placing an order through QKR, you will need to click on 'Special Food Day' and select which option your child would like (ordinary/gluten-free/vegan). The order will be listed for 21st September, rather than for Sports Day itself, to allow time for us to purchase sausages.

Regular lunch orders will not be available on Sports Day; however, drinks and snacks will be available to purchase at recess and lunch.

Thank you for your continued support of our school canteen

The Materials and Services charge is an amount charged to parents for the cost of items and services such as stationery, art supplies, texts, library books etc. 

Each year the fee is reviewed by the Finance Committee and presented to Governing Council for approval.  For 2021 Council has approved to make no change to the Materials & Services Fee from 2020.

The Governing Council must also consider whether this entire fee is voluntary or legally recoverable.  For it to become legally recoverable the school community needs to be polled to find out if the majority support this.  As per previous years, the GC has endorsed making it legally recoverable to ensure we can provide a quality program for our students.  For your information the watermarked notice is attached below.

On Thursday a notice will be mailed asking you to vote on this issue. The voting slip is in two parts and is only valid when both parts have been completed. Please return the voting slip to the box located in the office or directly to Sue.

If you would like any further information or have any comments please or feel free to contact Liz or myself.

Please note that there is no effect on School card families who will still receive the same benefit.

Daniel Zervaas

Governing Council Chairperson

It has been a busy term, with students entering into many reading and writing competitions. How wonderful it has been to see so many students eager to take up these challenges!

We began the term with numerous students entering into the South Australian Young Writers Award. From these entries, we had Emer (year 7), Isla (year 2) and Alexandra (year 1) all reaching the top 10 in the state. A huge achievement! Later we found out Alexandra was named 3^rd in the state for her piece of writing. Congratulations and well done to everyone who participated and took the time to write, edit and publish their work and especially those mentioned, and whose hard work was well recognised.

Our next milestone was when 131 students entered into the Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) reading challenge with the option of entering with a science focus. From these entries, all 131 students received a certificate. We found out a few weeks later, that out of around 1300 entries across the state, Lydia (rec) and Charlotte (year 1) received prizes for runners up. Wow, another amazing result!

We had 3 students enter into the brand-new Premier’s Indonesian challenge for this year. Well done to these students who undertook the opportunity to learn more about another country’s culture and community. We will wait to hear how they went.

Finally, the annual Premier’s Reading Challenge was entered by 394 students from our school. Each entrant is aiming for a certificate or medal, depending on how many years they have completed these challenges previously. The students will receive this next term.

It has been delightful to see so many students from our school participating in these challenges and being rewarded for their achievements. J

To celebrate Book Week and in conjunction with the Mitcham Library, 8 classes have been involved in an exciting opportunity to work with Shaun Tan. They have read some of his books and watched a short movie, along with video zooming with him. They have had the opportunity to create Curious Creatures and Shaun has personally replied to some of their designs! How cool is that!

Each class has collaborated their ideas to create one model of a curious creature. Above are photos of some of their original ideas. These models will be on display at the Mitcham Library from 1^st October until the 5^th November. You might like to take your family down for a look. J

Thank you to ...

A huge thank you to those families who have donated books this year to the library. We are always looking for good condition books that the children will enjoy for our library. If you have any to donate, please bring to the school office or the library. They will be greatly received!

Michelle O’Connell

Teacher Librarian

Just a reminder that Book Week this year will be celebrated in week 2 of next term. The theme for this year is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’.

During term 4, students in years Rec – 3 will enjoy a Book Week performance at school. All students will also have the opportunity to ‘virtually’ listen to different authors talk about their books and the process of writing stories. We look forward to this along with enjoying the book parade on Friday, 23^rd of October. The parade will be videoed, and a link will be sent out for you to enjoy too. Hopefully everyone is thinking about the costumes that they will wear!

Congratulations to all who auditioned and performed for our Coro Talent Show 2020.

There was a great variety of acts including magic, comedians, dance, singing and even a ventriloquist!

We are very proud of the resilience, creativity and Bravery of our students in participating in this event. Well done to everyone, especially our winners.

Performing Arts Committee

After chess competitions were cancelled earlier in the year, the first tournament for the year was finally held, with 8 Coromandel Valley students taking part - Beau, Daniel, Ewan, Finn, Isla, Jackson, Jake, Micah.

The team did very well, winning lots of early games to keep pace with the eventual winners St Martin de Porres School, before falling behind in the later rounds to finish second and pick up the Silver medals.

Jake was our best player, scoring 5.5 wins from his 7 games to finish in 4th place overall.   Congratulations to all our players for representing our school so well.  Special mention to Beau and Isla who were competing in their very first interschool tournament.

By finishing 2nd, Coromandel Valley has now qualified for the State Finals which will be played in term 4.

Huge thanks to Opal Greenwood and Kerry Coghlan for assisting with transport.  It's greatly appreciated as without your help it would not have been possible for our team to compete.

The Chess Club continues to meet on Monday lunchtimes, and anyone is welcome to come along. It would be great to see some new faces.

David Shaw

Congratulations to Nathan H, Aleks K and the rest of the Southern Heights Football (Soccer) team, who finished equal third place in the 3-day State Carnival.

And hats off to the Southern Heights Boys Hockey team, who were this year’s premiers.

Bernie De Lyster

PE Teacher

On September 1^st students from 1TM, together with Archer, Aquilo, Daniel and Angus from the Environment Group, planted natives donated by Mitcham Council to celebrate Arbour Day 2020. Thanks to Keith for digging the holes and providing the tree guards.

 Arya: We put soil in the holes and patted it down.

 Brock: We protected the little trees with plastic.

 Sophie: We planted the trees with the year 7s and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ethan: It was really fun because we got to plant trees near the year 4 building.

Workshop for parents and carers of children and young people with a disability.

This workshop will provide a safe and supportive environment for parents and carers to tell us what they already know, what they want to know and what is important to them about how schools respond to children’s sexual behaviour.

When: Tuesday 20 October 2020 from 10.00am to 11.00am
Where: Special Education Resource Unit (SERU)
Register online at the SERU website    

Throughout terms 3 and 4, small groups of Year 7 students and Year 6 students heading off to high school in 2021, are taking part in “Cooking and Conversations” sessions with PCW Jenni Forder.

Utilising the new kitchen and making healthy pizzas, cold rolls and brownies, served up with hot chocolate or milkshakes, the focus of the conversations is all things High School – what will be the same? What will be different? What am I looking forward to? What am I worried about? How will I make new friends?  What excites me the most about High School? One small group have finished their sessions and two more will have their turn in Term 4. 

Jenni Forder (PCW) 

Recently we were approached by Rotary to help support local families in need through the Beacon emergency relief service. A donation box will be placed in the front office for the first 3 weeks of next term to collect canned and dry food. We would ask for your support in donating these items for families in need within our community.

During Term 3, Mrs Gardner’s Reception class met some interesting new characters! 

Over 5 sessions, they have been introduced to: 

• Cloud – whose mood changes as quickly as the weather; he can be quite unpredictable 
• Bug – who is sacred to try new things and is learning how to be brave 
• Huggtopus – is very excitable and sometimes overbearing but is also a great friend to make you feel better 
• Cat – can be cranky and bossy but she also knows how to make kind, wise choices and can apologise to and forgive others 
• Lovey Dove – always looking out for others but can also tend to worry too much

Through stories, discussion, some helpful sayings, a little bit of dance, and craft activities, we have learnt some really helpful things from these characters, including: 

• “Its okay to be mad but its not okay to be mean”; and 
• “For something to be fun it must be fun for everyone”.

Each week we did a craft to make the focus character– see us here with our Cat masks and our Huggtopus puppets. 

Jenni Forder (PCW)